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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1919, No. 54 



THE SCHOOLS OF 
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 



By 
PETER H. PEARSON 

DIVISION OF FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS 
BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



[Advance Sheets from the Biennial Survey of Education, 1916-1918] 




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1919 



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THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

By PeTEB II. PEABSON. 

Division of Foreign Educational Systems, Bureau of Education. 



Contexts. — Conditions prior to the war — State or local control — The problem of the 
Einheit&sclwle — l'roblems of higher education — The teacher, the puj the war — 

The responsibility and the service of the schools — Consolidations of teachers' unions — 
The new order — Political reorganization in its effect on the schools. 



CONDITIONS PRIOR TO THE WAR. 

The political changes now taking place in Austria-Hungary will 
be followed undoubtedly by far-reaching alterations in the school 
system, whereby old modes will be swept away and new ones in- 
augurated. In the present sketch the attempt is made to treat only 
such problems and movements as are likely to continue in some form 
•and thereby maintain a living interest, even under a new political 
administration. Whatever the new political units may be, school 
men will continue to give attention to centralized control of schools 
as against local control, which is the substance of the State public 
school problem that has long occupied the attention of teachers in 
Austria. In regard to school organization, the " Einheitsschule," in 
which are involved the opportunities of the great mass of pupils, is 
likely to receive further attention, even under an altered administra- 
tion. In the reorganization of the schools that Austrian teachers 
and statesmen are about to consider, they will try to realize the 
thought that special talent of any kind is a treasure belonging to the 
State, which, for the good of the State, should be brought to its own 
complete fruition. To discover such individual talent and to find 
the means, inside or outside of school, for its development will be 
more fully realized and accepted as a duty of the State. While it 
is premature to attempt a forecast of the character the educational 
movements inaugurated by the present upheaval will assume, it is 
quite certain that they will break the barriers within which the 
schools have hitherto done their work ; new duties demanded by actual 
life will come within the scope of the teacher's labors ; new agencies 
from the practical activities will be enlisted in educational work. 

In treating the schools of Austria in their present condition of 
change, it is, of course, disappointing to be unable to follow any 

3 



4 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

departure or movement to a stage of finality. Perhaps, however, 
there are compensations in observing how the schools and teachers 
have adjusted themselves to the emergencies created by the war and 
have met the crisis; the balance they have been able to maintain; 
the encouragement, advice, and example they have furnished; and 
the pressure of autocratic domination under which they have labored. 
At this moment full details are not at hand, but there are enough to 
show that the teachers in Austria are, as would be expected, better 
prepared than any other class of that country to accept the political 
changes in a spirit of sanity and poise. 

The educational currents created by the war receive their special 
character from the original lack of solidarity among the people of 
Austria-Hungary. The Germanic, Slavonic, and Hungarian Prov- 
inces, each comprising within itself races differing from one another 
in politics, religion, and ethnic origin, have been unable to effect an 
amalgamation of their units. 

They have been only loosely united into one commonwealth held 
together by a governmental machinery which is necessarily cumbrous. 
The two dominant Provinces, Austria and Hungary, have had a 
ruler in common, but little else. The provincial parliaments, 17 in 
number, have been virtually autonomous in determining their inter- 
nal affairs as well as in the ordering of their schools. Members of 
Parliament from the Crown lands have been elected b}^ a constit- 
uency split up by 7 or 8 languages, and by differences in religion, 
tradition, and industry. The qualification best recommending a can- 
didate was the ability to further some provincial interest rather than 
measures of nation-wide scope. In the Imperial Parliament the Aus- 
trian part of the assembly, consisting of Czechs, Poles, Ruthenians, 
and Italians, have been still more divided than the Hungarians. In 
the factional struggles, therefore, the plans of the latter have gener- 
ally prevailed. Each political faction set up unity as its aim, but 
each made itself the center to which the others should be united. 
" The Magyars revolted against being Germanized, but saw no in- 
consistency in insisting that the Serbians, Croats, Rumanians, and 
Slovenes should be Magyarized." Yet up to the time of the war no 
dismemberment seemed probable, for the Provinces were so related 
that while " they had a hard time to live together, they would have 
a still harder time if they parted company;" hence the struggles 
have been, not for secession, but for the fullest freedom within the 
union. 

The Germans of Vienna are different from their kinsmen of Ber- 
lin. They are not so robust; they arc less diligent, less inclined to 
orderliness, less commercial, but more cheerful, good natured, and 
genial. Austrian patriotism has always been far more a product of 
reasoning than an instinctive attachment to the State. With the 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 5 

Austrian, feeling for the State has never been sufficiently strong to 
supplant the attachment for his native crownland. 

In Germany there was, in 1900, only one case of illiteracy among 
2,000 recruits, while in Austria there were 356. Since then the figures 
have become considerably less. This result should be judged in the 
light of the fact that Germany examines her young men at the time 
of recruiting, while Austria and Hungary at the time of taking the 
census. In Germany three generations have passed since school 
attendance was made obligatory, while in Austria two and in Hun- 
gary only one. 

The incessant conflict among 8, 9, or 10 different races has obscured 
the view in respect to social, cultural, and educational needs, and 
here is at least one cause of the lack of determination vigorously to 
combat the condition of illiteracy that prevails. 

STATE OR LOCAL CONTROL. 

The solution of the problem of State or local control over the pub- 
lic schools will be fundamentally affected by the political changes 
now pending. As a public issue it may, indeed, be obscured for a 
time by the larger one of the reorganization of the State itself, but it 
will reappear as the new administration sees the necessity of uniform 
instruction in the rudiments of citizenship under the new organiza- 
tion. 

In Austria-Hungary the Ministry of Education exercised supreme 
control over all schools with the exception of certain institutions 
under the management of the Department of Agriculture. The im- 
mediate control was vested in the provincial legislature and carried 
out through (a) a school council for the crownland, (h) a district 
board for each district, and (c) a local board for each community. 
The legislature selected the members of the crownland councils from 
the clergy, the citizens, and the specialists in education. The same 
authority also ratified the appointed membership of the district and 
local boards, determining the power vested in the several boards and 
the details of arrangements under which they discharged their duties. 
The school programs and schedules were drawn up under the direc- 
tion of the Ministry of Education on the basis of outlines furnished 
by the crownland councils. 

The power of enacting laws for the folk school was apportioned 
between the State and the several Provinces, according to the consti- 
tution of 1867. The power of determining the principles was re- 
served to the State; all other matters, such as founding and main- 
taining schools, insuring attendance, inspection, fixing the legal status 
of teachers in respect to appointment, salaries, retirement, dis- 
cipline — all these matters were left to the legislatures of the crown- 
lands. 



6 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

Iii placing the management of the schools and the responsibility 
for their progress in the hands of local bodies, the lawmakers had in 
mind the example of Switzerland, where a similar distribution of 
control created a healthy competition among school communities. In 
Austria, however, no such rivalry set in. The people did not then 
recognize the intimate dependence of the productive industries on 
the work of the schools ; they regarded the outlay for schools as un- 
productive. To this was added dissatisfaction over the unequal dis- 
tribution of the expenses. The appointment of teachers, the regula- 
tion of teachers' salaries, and the school inspection were left to the 
crownland and the individual districts, with the result of frequent 
complaints of arbitrary action; teachers were appointed, 1 not with 
regard to professional merits, but for reasons that had nothing to do 
with the vocation of teaching, such as political and factional adher- 
ence. 

Now one racial division, now another, placed a prominent per- 
sonality at the head in the Ministry of Education. The political 
forces that could be mustered would effect a change in the board of 
education and thereby a change in the system. German, Polish, 
Czechish, Magyar leaders, in their efforts to draw a following, pro- 
ceeded on different lines. The school system became unsettled and 
troubled by innumerable regulations issuing from no dominating 
central idea. Desirable reforms were obscured or set aside in order 
to enhance the prestige or power of a faction. If the crownland 
nations are ever to draw together in a closer union, some way of 
imparting instruction in citizenship should be adopted for all the 
schools of the State. Such instruction has indeed been included in 
the programs of schools above the elementary, but there was no con- 
certed effort in the direction of general unity ; hence the subject cre- 
ated differences rather than common purposes. Again, the greatest 
latitude was permitted to each school in the mode of imparting the 
instruction, whether as a subject with its place among the other 
subjects, or as an informal discipline to be imparted anywhere within 
the general framework of the curriculum. 

In the efforts toward unity and integrity, one class of institutions 
is brought prominently to the front. Unity among the schools re- 
quires unity among the teachers and the institutions that train them. 
Some power must be wielded from a central point to steady their 
efforts into cooperative activity. The interests here involved can 
never be of a merely local character and as such can not safely be 
intrusted to local authorities. They are intimately connected with 
the rebuilding of the forces that the war has destroyed and of replen- 
ishing the depleted sources of subsistence. In the House of Repre- 
sentatives the Austrian Minister of Finance gave expression to these 

U'iidagogische Rundschau, February, 1917. 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 7 

thoughts in the discussion of the war budget in September, 1917, 
when he said that expense for measures to improve the people's 
health and education should be regarded as productive expenditures 
and as such to be furthered by the State. Thereby school questions 
become State questions of the first magnitude. From this it follows 
that schools for the training of teachers are the chief prerequisite for 
extending and improving public education. At present there are 84 
State institutions, as against 64 private — crownland, city, denomina- 
tional, and other— founded for the same purpose. The training of 
the teachers for the State in consistent and coordinated notions of 
duty and service that extend beyond provincial limits is an obliga- 
tion resting on the State itself. This duty the State already exer- 
cised with regard to the middle schools and the universities, but to 
have charge of the entire training of the teachers is in a still higher 
degree the duty of the State. 1 

The thought is gaining prominence that the development of the 
entire people, together with national events, such as those now tak- 
ing place, furnish instruction material for a national school, and 
that the elementary and the advanced folk schools should more fully 
utilize this national material. Then, too, the war has shown how 
deep and dangerous were the ruptures that threatened the Austrian 
people. In order to check these disintegrating tendencies the State 
must take direct hold of the folk school and thereby foster the in- 
terests of a firmer union. 

The difficulty in bringing the folk school under direct control of 
the State lies in the fear that the general population would thereby 
be excluded from participating in the management of the schools. 
This fear appears to be unfounded, for while the State would, under 
the change contemplated, exercise direct control without the inter- 
vention of other legislative bodies, it would be in continual confer- 
ence with the crownlands to ascertain the wishes and conditions of 
specific localities. The school district and communes would be re- 
lieved from the burden of expense, regularity of attendance would 
be secured, and the communes be free independently to further edu- 
cation in their respective localities. 

The transfer of folk school management to the State would meet 
squarely the criticism, coming from the crownland school districts, 
that the gymnasia and the universities with their aristocratic patron- 
age are liberally supported by the State, while the schools for the 
people are left unprovided and neglected. By taking these schools 
under its own protection the State would effectively silence such 
criticism. 

The idea of the State folk school has gained currency and favor 
especially in those Provinces that, on account of political dissensions 

1 P&dogogisches Jahrbuch, 1918. 



8 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

and financial stringency, have been unable adequately to support 
their schools. But the principle of centralization, which it embodies, 
involves the choice of central authority in which the controlling 
power should be vested. 

Just here Austria felt that her interests were vitally concerned. 
In organizing for the keen industrial competition which the coming 
years will bring, the German language must be the center and rally- 
ing point. It is not enough for the State, therefore, to enact a law 
and leave the realization of its ends to the crownlands. She must 
with a firm hand guide the schools herself, for with respect to the 
schools crownland autonomy has been a disappointment. 

Under more favorable circumstances, defective or inequitable 
laws could be remedied by legislative action. When, however, the 
State passes a general enactment under which relief might be 
sought by communities and school boards, this enactment will be 
construed and interpreted by 17 different legislative bodies. In the 
opinion, therefore, of the foremost educators of Austria, national 
uniformity with equity in its operation can not be secured through 
a State law interpreted and enforced by the crownland legislatures. 
In the State folk school these men see relief from the random expen- 
diture of money and energy which thus far has had the lamentable 
effect of increasing the contentions among Austria's numerous fac- 
tions. 

THE PROBLEM OF THE EINHEITSSCHULE. 

As in all civilized countries, the war has brought home to the 
people of Austria the importance of fully utilizing all its resources, 
intellectual as well as material. It has emphasized the relations 
which the public school sustains to industrial life and thereby added 
new interest to the study of better coordination between the country's 
education and its industries. 

Judging from the views reflected in the Padagogische Rundschau 
and in the Jahrbiicher for 1916-1918, a new impetus has been given 
to the movement for extending all forms of education to the largest 
number in order to help the schools more fully to contribute toward 
industrial needs. Hence there is a stronger insistence on, first, a 
regrouping of studies to meet individual capacities as these appear 
between the ages of 10 and 14 years; second, a more rational guidance 
in vocational selection; and third, an articulation between the ele- 
mentary and the advanced courses that shall permit a pupil to 
pass on to his chosen work without waste of time and without social 
handicap. 

Readjustments of this kind, to which the stress of recent events 
lias given new significance, constitute the outline of what in the 
countries of Europe is known as the problem of the Einheitssclmle. 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 9 

More fully stated, it includes everything that affects the organic 
connection between school types, conditions of admission, educa- 
tional aims, and vocational selection. 

Fundamental^ the problem arises directly out of the origin and 
growth of different classes of educational institutions. Historically 
the folk schools had an order of development different from that of 
the higher institutions. The higher educational aims were set up by 
the church and the state; and the church and the state founded in- 
stitutions adapted to realize these aims in their advanced character. 
The university grew up within the church, often under the imme- 
diate patronage of some prince, who hoped to secure its povv T er and 
prestige for his principality. Schools of gymnasium rank and sc 
were then established to prepare pupils for the universities, eventually 
becoming the exclusive ports of entrance to these. The authorities of 
all advanced institutions prescribed a special form of dress and con- 
duct of life to be observed by masters and pupils, conveying the idea 
of separateness as well as of corporate rights and privileges. The 
gymnasia again required a certain amount of elementary instruction 
for admission; to meet this requirement special preparatory schools 
(Vorschulen) were founded, which in their status of preparatory 
schools for the gymnasia partook of the exclusiveness of the latter. 

The origin of the public elementary schools may also be credited to 
the church, for some knowledge of reading and writing was neces- 
sary for the church to do its work. But the instruction imparted 
was of a humble order, stressing usefulness, obedience, and religion, 
with no impressive associations. There existed in the early times a 
feeling that the duties of an elementary school teacher could be in- 
trusted to anybody, of even modest personal education. Unfortu- 
nately the terms " school for the poor " and " charity school " were 
close at hand, and were frequently used to characterize these early 
institutions for the children of the poor. 

Educational leaders eventually saw the importance to the coun- 
try's prosperity of a more adequate education of the public. The 
public schools then entered on their own mode of growth. School- 
houses and school facilities better adapted to the work were pro- 
vided; institutions for the training of teachers were established; 
then laws requiring attendance; and, finally, school programs and 
courses growing out of the needs of the people. As its scope ex- 
panded the folk school grew into the advanced elementary (Burger) 
school, the latter type being common to all the Germanic peoples of 
Europe. In the same continuity from the original public school 
appeared the modern school (Eealschule), which did work equal 
in advancement to parallel schools of the classical type. 

In such a development of the school system from opposite direc- 
tions each of the two parts came to have definite ends and implica- 
133407°— 19 2 



10 , BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

tions. The gymnasium and the university became the institutions 
which opened the way to the professions and the sciences. But the 
long and arduous road leading to distinctions through university 
studies can be successfully pursued only by the student whose parents 
have wealth to assist his natural endowments. Again, these institu- 
tions came to be considered as places to prepare for social position 
through the prestige the university confers. 

The folk school, on the other hand, and the institutions which 
grew from it, have been associated with the everyday needs of the 
people. Their educational aims have been more modest. After com- 
pleting the required school period, their pupils were expected to 
return to an occupation like that followed by their parents rather 
than to enter on advanced studies. 

The present sweep of democratic ideas, augmented by the exi- 
gencies of the war, is breaking down the traditional school bounda- 
ries and demanding that each member of the commonwealth be given 
the fullest opportunity to train for the service he is best fitted to 
perform. First of all, this requires that whatever faulty coordina- 
tion or other handicap attends the schools as a result of their mode 
of development be corrected or removed, so that the pupil's progress 
may be limited only by his own capacity. 

Structurally, it means that the series of school types that have 
developed from the two opposite directions — from the university and 
from the folk school — be brought together into a single organic 
sequence of schools. Practically, it requires the consideration of a 
number of separate problems that arise partly in completing the 
amalgamation and partly from the various social and industrial 
interests thereby affected. Whatever adjustment of this kind the 
schools may be able to make is to that extent a solution of the 
einheitsschule problem. 

The problem is not a new one. Pestalozzi and, in later years, 
Friedrich Paulsen and Kerschensteiner saw the regrettable effects 
of a system that separated pupils into categories on the basis of their 
parents' means, thereby causing the schools to further social cleav- 
age. The earliest plans to carry out the unity idea — which are 
almost the same to-day — took the form of a common required primary 
period which alone should admit to secondary institutions. The 
early objections were that the plan was impossible of realization, 
that it was urged in the interest of certain classes of teachers, and 
that it was calculated to advance the interests of political factions. 
Most of these objections came, however, from school men unwilling 
to disturb the existing structure. At this time vocational selection 
had not become a part of the unity idea, or the number of objections 
would have been still greater. Notwithstanding the opposition, the 
plan gained favor to such an extent that some recognition was 



THE SCHOOLS TRIA-HUNGARY. 11 

given to it in the school enactments of several countries. In " Die 
Einheitsschule " Richard Ballerstaedt traces its development and 
points out that in France a law of 1869 caused the founding of 
State preparatory schools to be discontinued. In 1873 a law was 
passed in Sweden approaching the unity school idea. Norway in 
1869 replaced the preparatory school by a common foundation for 
all advanced schools. The school laws of Denmark, passed in 1903, 
advanced the principle in that country. In the United States it 
has never been a problem, for here the common undivided school has 
always been the basis of the entire system. Though an approach to 
it was made in Austria by laws passed in 1869 and 1883, slow prog- 
ress has been made up to the present time. Now the war has made 
the Einheitsschule idea a living and vital issue. The educational 
press combats the notion that a few only are entitled to enjoy tlie 
achievements of art and science, and that the many are destined to 
perform the labor through which these achievements are reached. 

Just as every pupil must be admitted on equal terms, setting aside 
the distinctions of wealth or station, so must all kinds of work re- 
quiring trained skill be admitted to the schools on equal terms, free 
from every taint of association. From every consideration, peda- 
gogical and practical, enlightened opinion in Austria demands that 
practical work be brought within the scope of the school activities 
and placed on the same plane as other subjects, whether it is done 
in the workshop, the school garden, or the school kitchen. In so far 
as the process of reorganization may affect the inclusion or exclu- 
sion of subjects, there will be the opportunity to have the prestige 
of labor officially proclaimed by assigning it equality with other stud- 
ies. In urging this step the schoolmen are not clamoring for mere 
monotonous equality. The democratic contention for equal oppor- 
tunity must heed the aristocratic insistence on strictly determining 
the value of an achievement and the superiority of personal worth. 

All plans embodying the unity principle include a common, undi- 
vided, elementary period for all pupils as the first essential, as already 
pointed out, and hence the discontinuance of the preparatory de- 
partments attached to State or municipal secondary schools. The 
basis for this common period is found in the folk school, which in 
Austria usually comprises five years. But the length of time it is 
expedient for the children of a community to attend the same ele- 
mentary school is a matter on which educators are not agreed. Some 
teachers and most parents believe there should be a departure in the 
direction of a chosen calling as early as possible. Postponement of 
the choice by a year beyond what is necessary would, in their opin- 
ion, be a loss. Just here arises the consideration that, in their eager- 
ness to select a specific line of activity, the guardians of pupils 
should net overlook the importance of teaching them the purpose 



12 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

of work in general, to which their own proficiency must be related. 
There must be the general training for citizenship to give meaning, 
balance, and coordination to the vocational training. 

To carry out the principle gives rise to numerous problems. At 
what stage of a child's development, for instance, do its powers and 
capacities appear with sufficient clearness to furnish a safe basis 
for the choice of calling? In Norway, where this question has been 
much discussed, teachers vary in their estimates between the ages 
of 9 and 13. Kerschensteiner, of Germany, holds that a child's apti- 
tudes are seen at the age of 10 or 12, with the exception of memory 
by rote, which appears with marked differences among children much 
earlier. 

The mode of determining a child's advanced elementary studies 
is fraught with its own perplexities. In most countres of central 
Europe, where a free road is now urged for all gifted pupils and 
special roads for the most gifted, this question has become promi- 
nent. Should the choice be left to the parent and the teachers, who 
would be guided by the gifts and inclinations that have come to light 
during the pupil's three to seven years in the primary school, or 
should resort be had to special intellectual tests ? 

The choice of calling carries with it the responsibility for choice 
of courses consistent therewith. In the Padagogiches Jahrbuch for 
1918, Prof. Theodore Steiskal contends that it would be advisable 
to have a board consisting of teachers, school physician, and pa- 
rents to determine what courses of study a pupil should take up. 
In the decisions of this board the teacher and, if necessary, the 
faculty should have the deciding vote, with the understanding, how- 
ever, that their conclusions be based both on tests of knowledge and 
on general tests of the pupil's intelligence and endowments. The 
decision of the parents would be simplified in so far as they would 
choose only among the several school types the one that would best 
„ meet the gifts of their children, as explained during the conference 
with the advisory board. 1 The full purpose of this advisory board 
would be to protect the intellectual, moral, and physical welfare, 
and, in fact, the future happiness of the children, against the vanity 
of the parents. In view of these purposes, Prof. Steiskal urges the 
employment of tests for scientifically ascertaining a pupil's fitness 
for a specified department of work and study. Intelligence tests, 
vocational psychology, and school organization would thereby be 
brought together and comprise a field for the solution of the weight- 
iest educational problems of the present time. 

As it would diminish a pupil's chance for success to be ushered 
into a calling already overcrowded, industrial and professional de- 

1 Based <»n lecture by Prof. Steiskal, :is published in T'iidnjro.trisciics Jahrbuch, Vienna, 
15)18. 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 13 

inands have to be considered in the selection. Statistics showing 
the fields that offer the best openings would have to be compiled for 
the use of the selecting board. Again, the interests of the pupils are 
fully guarded only when the selection of courses may be freely al- 
tered within a reasonable time, as experience may show that the first 
choice was erroneous. The structure of the school units, therefore, 
must provide alternatives and equivalents that can be accepted 
within limits as leading to more than one calling. 

Even though carried out by conscientious advisers, acting under 
the most favorable conditions, the selection of vocations and studies 
for others is not free from objections. Many teachers are reluctant 
to take these matters out of the hands of the parents in the manner 
indicated. Again, they hesitate about assuming the responsibility 
involved in selecting some pupils for ambitious higher studies and 
assigning others in advance to special tasks of social servitude. 

In respect to organization the principle of the unity school moves 
toward complexity rather than simplicity. It must prepare divergent 
roads for the increased number of student groups formed by voca- 
tional selection, each group moving on toward specialized studies. It 
must provide transition possibilities, so that the pupils may, in case 
of altered choice, pass from one road to another without too great 
loss of time or effort. Again, as circumstances allow some to continue 
at school longer than others, points of conclusion must be provided 
to permit pupils of various means and gifts to finish their periods of 
study at different times, yet with some degree of completeness in each 
case. 

The principles of structure as set forth by Kerschensteiner, Lang, 
and Steiskal give particular prominence to vocational selection, which 
is now associated with the unity idea. As individual capacities ap- 
pear earlier in some children and later in others, the selection can not 
be made so that pupils are classified into categories at a fixed time. 
The earliest grouping should be general and tentative. 

A preliminary inquiry like that for some years conducted by 
M. Belot, of Paris, would be easy to make and cause no derangement 
of the work. He invites each pupil to complete the following form: 

1. When I become a man, I wish to be I wish to be 

because 

2. If I can not be I should like to be 

3. If I can be neither nor 1 should 

like to be 

Assuming a period of six years required of all pupils, the first four 
years would undoubtedly suffice for a selection along broad and basic 
lines. Accordingly, some differentiation in the stud}' program would 
come at the end of the fourth year, probably with added language 
study in one group of courses and increasing stress on science in the 
other. Further division would take place at the end of the obliga- 



14 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

tory period when some would enter the trades as apprentices, while 
others would continue in the advanced elementary school for another 
year; others would enter the continuation schools to pursue studies 
in the , direction of technical vocations and industries, while still 
others would continue toward the gymnasium. Further selection, or 
alteration of selection, would come at different times between the 
ages of 12 and 14 as the pupils would complete units of the continua- 
tion work. Again, a selection of advanced technical or university 
studies would be made at 16 or 18 with specialized grouping in the 
direction of the career in view. Details of studies and schedules can 
not be settled until the altered articulations among the school units, 
as required by the plan, are effected. Many teachers of Austria do 
not regard the present as an opportune time to attempt radical re- 
forms. Questions of reorganization involving the interests of peo- 
ple in all stations in life should not be settled under the pressure of 
abnormal influence, yet insistence on reforms comes both from the 
folkschool with the cry of equality of opportunity and from the sec- 
ondary institutions with demands for relief from the adverse condi- 
tions under which they labor. 

As one of the heaviest tasks assigned to the Einheitsschule is to 
remove social barriers, its opponents ask whether this task does not 
belong to society rather than to any one of its institutions. The 
demand for such a school is, in reality, an effect of what is evolving 
among social orders. Whether the schools in their practical ar- 
rangements can further this cause is extremely doubtful. Assum- 
ing that all children, those from homes of poverty and those from 
homes of opulence, could be brought together in the same classroom 
and set to work on the same lessons, would they not segregate into 
groups at every recess and every free period, and would they not 
regard the enforced association as a grievance? Children are not 
skilled in concealing notions of superiority fostered in their homes, 
and they can not be expected to exercise the tact and forbearance 
that their parents lack. The social functions connected with exami- 
nations and commencements would be embarrassing to the student 
from a home in poor circumstances. Will not the functions in which 
he takes part cause him more fully to realize the difference in rank, 
and, hence, emphasize the lines of social division? It is further 
pointed out that parents may reasonably be permitted to exercise 
discretion in the choice of schools and hence the association of their 
children. What if rich and superior families refuse to send their 
children to the public schools and reject the common undivided 
period? Again, assuming that obstructions can be removed so that 
a free road to advancement is opened for all. the means of travel 
must also be provided, a matter which thus far lias received little 
attention in the discussion of the Einheitsschule. 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 15 

These objections are met by pointing out that the changes in 
question, like all far-reaching changes, can take place only grad- 
ually. Time must be allowed for pupils to accommodate themselves 
to the new adjustments. In the meantime, it is urged, ameliorate 
the conditions both of the public schools and of the pupils in at- 
tendance. Improve the hygienic arrangements; reduce the number 
of pupils in a class, and, above everything else, appoint the best 
teachers at salaries commensurate with their work. The State and 
the community will see that it is to their advantage to discover and 
develop talent, and they will create the funds necessary for this 
purpose. Eventually the best human qualities, the best powers of 
heart and intellect will win and find their just level in these asso- 
ciations. In both its general and practical character the most en- 
lightened school men look upon a system of education as a structure 
continually subject to changing emphasis, and. hence, to constant 
readjustment of its units. It is a living thing, an organism rather 
than a mechanism ; it must respond to the shif tings and the changes 
that take place in the society from which it grows. As the directing 
of the schools was transferred from the official power of the church 
to the state and the commune stress was laid on new features of its 
work. Varying phases of school problems, therefore, are accentuated 
as they appear against a social background of different times and 
different countries. 

In Germany the Einheitsschule at first concerned itself with at- 
tempts to " satisfy divergent educational requirements, especially in 
the domain of secondary education." * Later the emphasis shifted 
to that of a common undivided elementary period to serve as the 
foundation for " either a classical or modern education." The Frank- 
furter curriculum preserves the spirit of the unity principle while 
it sets up several distinct aims due to modern needs. More recently 
another phase of the proposed reform is uppermost — every talent 
is a treasure belonging to the nation; the school must find it and open 
an unobstruced way for its fullest development and utilization. In 
Austria, too, educational leaders see the importance of the early dis- 
covery of talent and its fullest development for service ; they see the 
waste and disappointment bound to follow an indiscriminate encour- 
agement of the fit and the unfit alike to pursue advanced studies; 
hence they are concerned with plans for checking the influx by means 
of rational selection. As there is danger of erroneous selection, they 
wish divisions of the school work so correlated as not to leave the 
pupil irrevocably committed to a course of education upon which 
lie has entered through ill-considered reasons. The unity principle 
to be embodied in the altered organization of the schools must take 

1 From terminological notes prefixed to " German Education Past and Present," by 
Friedrich Paulsen. 



16 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

into consideration the enlarged scope of their work, and reconcile, 
so far as possible, a number of divergent trends due to present social 
needs. The function of the schools is no longer limited to impart- 
ing instruction; the schools become the centers of welfare work, 
first of all in behalf of the children, and then of entire families; they 
become distributing centers, with activities which are ordinarily only 
remotely connected with teaching. All these endeavors have the 
character of cooperation and collectivism, and carry with them the 
notions of a socialized community and group initiative. To bring 
the schools into organic cooperation with these activities requires 
time and can be done only by gradual alterations of the present sys- 
tem. As moving in best accord with these democratic currents of 
thought, some educators 1 hold that these reforms should proceed 
from the folk school as an extension of its present scope. By starting 
from the folk school it will be possible to continue the reform not 
only with the least disturbance of the present system but also in 
closest conformity with the needs that arise directly from society. 
The folk-school type would extend into an advanced folk school 
(Burger Schule), adapted to impart a general education to all pupils 
alike, whether they were destined eventually to become merchants, 
officials, or directors of industry. In the opinion of the same author- 
ity this advanced secondary school could be made the basis of all 
higher schools by organizing it in two divisions: A four-year folk 
school, upon which would be founded a four-year advanced secondary 
school. From the latter division would extend various branches such 
as teachers' normal schools, military, middle, industrial, agricultural, 
household, and professional schools. Special preparatory courses 
could be giv.en in the Burger Schule admitting to advanced standing 
in the gymnasium. This arrangement would not encroach upon the 
province of the gymnasium, for the latter would in general be left 
intact and receive its pupils directly from the folk school. An organi- 
zation on this basis would expand. Dr. Wettstein maintains, so that 
a continuation school would be provided for those pupils who leave 
the folk school at the end of the first four years just as an extension 
of the last four years would develop to receive pupils who would not 
enter the gymnasium. 

The advantages that would follow from this succession and rela- 
tion of units is thus summed up by the same authority : 

The course of general education would be simplified and extended to the 
greatest number. Tjhere would be a common period of education up to the 
pupil's 14th year. A significant gain would be the postponement of the vo- 
cational choice to the more mature age of 14, a time when the pupil's real 
Capacity rather tlhau general reasons would he the deciding factor. The middle 
schools could be founded with greater independence of local conditions, for 

1 Anions them Dr. Wettstein. 



THE SCHOOLS OF ATJSTBIA-HUNGABY. 17 

pupils of maturer years could more easily be away from home. TJhere would 
be an economic gain; for villages and smaller communities, relieved of main- 
taining gymnasia, could open school for a wider patronage. The plan would 
counteract the estrangement among social ranks, as pupils by being educated 
together until the age of 14 would find a greater number of interests in com- 
mon. 

He concludes that the details of schedules and curricula to come 
within this framework of the system can be arrived at only after full 
discussion conducted in the light of the effects that the present events 
will have upon society. 

PROBLEMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION. 

At the universities there has been of late years, according to Dr. 
Richard von "Wettstein, a regrettable lowering of the intellectual 
plane of the student body. 1 Among the causes of this is the fact that 
so many people attend the universities who are not naturally fitted 
for a university career. Neither do they possess the means indispen- 
sable to a successful pursuit of advanced studies. Many come to enter 
the universities through the peculiar position that the advanced 
secondary schools (Mittel-schulen) hold in the system. These confer 
the " one-year privilege " with reference to military service, and make 
a university career possible. Once started, it is only in exceptional 
cases that students change their direction toward a calling in better 
accord with their aptitudes. Another reason for the lowered stand- 
ards is that in some localities gymnasia are maintained not in re- 
sponse to educational needs but as centers of political influence. 
Once established, every effort is made to increase their attendance; 
accordingly, the requirements are lowered so as to bring the largest 
possible percentage up to the leaving examination and swell the 
numbers that move on to the university. The attendance at the 
middle schools increased from 79,383 in 1893 to 160,000 in 1913. 

Again, the privilege of substituting examinations for studios is 
responsible in part for the undesirable influx. Many girls, after 
completing the courses in the lycee. pursue private studies as prepa- 
ration for the advanced secondary (Realschule) school, and are then 
admitted to the university. While occupied with their university 
studies they pursue extra work leading to the gymnasium finals 
to the neglect of the regular work they have then taken up. They 
and their guardians overlook the fact that attendance at a school 
of the right standing, with its prestige and spirit reinforcing then? 
work, is essential to scholarly maturity. Xo compensation for this 
can be acquired in a few weeks' residence nor by examinations. 

These and other causes have crowded the universities beyond their 
capacity and entirely out of proportion to the economic demand for 

1 From Padagogisches Jahrbuch, Vienna, 1916. 



18 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 191G-1918. 

people university trained. In 1893 the total number of students at- 
tending the universities of Austria-Hungary was 16,288; in 1913 
the number had increased to 43.225. The immediate consequence 
was to make the equipment and accommodations inadequate. The 
same lecture rooms had to be used notwithstanding the fact that the 
attendance had trebled. The most unfortunate results of the influx 
are an overflow in all callings requiring academic studies as a pre- 
requisite, and the creation of an academic proletariat. Other serious 
consequences follow, such as a debasing competition for place among 
people of university training in which not always the best but often 
the most insistent wins. 

Qualitatively, too, the education and scholarship of the universi- 
ties suffer from this indiscriminate influx. Even the best students — 
those coming from the gymnasia — show a discouraging lack of inde- 
pendence in intellectual matters. 1 The gymnasium student " is 
trained to use what he has learned, but he is at a loss when it comes 
to giving an independent judgment." Too great reliance is placed 
on textbooks and notes, and not enough on efforts to transmute these 
into independent achievements. Dr. Wettstein adds that, while the 
students have an open mind for the practical usefulness of what they 
learn, their opinions are easily swayed, for they depend more on the 
teacher's word than on their own observations. When the Austrian 
student enters the university he is invested with personal independ- 
ence as a student and as a citizen, assuming also the duties and obli- 
gations that go with these privileges. But those familiar with the 
facts as they come to light see that he is badly prepared for his new 
responsibilities. He is unfamiliar with the ordinary affairs of daily 
life, even with the duties arising from his position in the State and 
the community. Others have hitherto attended to his personal affairs, 
depriving him of the self-government and character training that 
should go with practical experiences. His inexperience of life is re- 
sponsible, in part at least, for the factional troubles arising when he 
takes part in political and social movements. 

The absence of school-type coordination from the earliest stages 
on has created an unfortunate departmental separateness among both 
students and teachers. At the age of 10 the pupil enters the gymna- 
sium, and associates only with those of his own group; the same 
exclusiveness continues throughout his university career. After 
this continuous education within narrow circles he enters the service 
of State or the community as official, teacher, or physician, in which 
capacity he should be in sympathy with all classes. 

While the university men are confident that some relief from these 
unfavorable conditions would follow from the adoption of the unity 
principle in the school sequence, others are not so sanguine. The 

1 Dr. Richard von Wottstein in Pada^og-iscbes Jahrbuch, Vienna, 1916. 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY. 19 

opponents maintain that to institute a type of folk school as the only 
means of entrance to advanced secondary schools, thus sending all 
pupils a considerable distance on the way to the university, would 
augment instead of decrease the influx to these institutions. The 
principle of vocational selection as an essential part of the unity idea 
would not operate toward a diminution of numbers, for it would be 
difficult to carry out with sufficient severity. 

The champions of the unity idea reply that, whether the contem- 
plated change would check the increase or not, growth in attendance 
can not in itself be regarded as an evil or a danger. To extend educa- 
tion in its highest form to all classes of society should be encouraged 
and not checked by arbitrary articulation of school types. Not fewer 
educated people but their more rational distribution according to the 
professional and economic needs of the country is desirable. It is 
true that there were 160,000 students at the gymnasia and schools of 
that rank in 1913-14, but at the advanced commercial schools there 
were only 8,000, at the State vocational schools only 4,800, and at the 
forest academies only 2,000. There is then a real shortage of students 
who prepare for the work in forestry, commerce, trades, and indus- 
tries requiring skilled management and leadership. 

THE TEACHERS, THE PUPILS, AND THE WAR. 

The enormous losses occasioned by the war in human lives and 
in human means of subsistence, with consequent privations and dis- 
tress, have brought new and urgent questions before the people. 
One of the most vital is how to recover from these losses, and par- 
ticularly how to replenish the depleted food supplies. With the 
statesmen in Austria and Germany these have become school ques- 
tions in so far as it is the schools that must furnish the training for 
the work of production. Hence educational problems have become 
linked as never before with industrial and political life. The dis- 
covery and utilization of energy and talent came to be regarded as 
service in patriotism. The work of schools, teachers, and pupils 
was mobilized and hence invested with a military glamor. During 
the first year of the war every subject, every activity, and mode of 
instruction was touched by a feeling of exultation that deeply af- 
fected the schools, making it difficult to move in steady courses. The 
immediate effect was to interrupt the instruction by abridged terms. 
As men teachers were called to military service, there came to be a 
shortage of teachers with consequent vacancies often filled by 
women. 

The official reports show that the pupils promptly responded to 
appeals to place themselves in the service of the Government for war 
work. The}? assisted in tilling vegetable gardens for war purposes. 
Thev collected wood, rubber, metals, herbs, and leaves. Tliev took 



20 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

part in the Red Cross drives, and in collections for consumptives 
and for wounded and blinded soldiers. The help of the children 
in subscriptions to the third and fourth war loans was especially 
efficient. They caused money withheld from circulation to come 
into use through the State treasury. The self-sacrificing spirit of 
the children was also seen in connection with the " Savings Day w 
instituted in many places. 

Gradually the school work began to resume normal regularity. 
School buildings that had been used for military offices, and sol- 
diers' recreation rooms, were returned to their former uses. Upon 
the request of teacher's organizations, barracks vacated by the sol- 
diers were also turned over to the schools to be used as gymnastic 
rooms, or, when suitably located, as forest and vocation schools. 

The Yahrbuch for 1917 shows that in the third year of the war 
the children labored as before as collectors for useful purposes ; they 
helped to plead for the war loans; they tilled the potato gardens, 
and in winter helped to remove the snow. The Ministry of War 
issued a formal note of thanks and appreciation in which the chil- 
dren's services were recognized. They were exhorted to further 
efforts in behalf of their native land, to be self-sacrificing and con- 
stant in their devotion to their country, home, and sovereign. 

But there was then no longer the military glamor and esprit. A 
deep yearning for peace began to be felt among the ranks and 
masses. They began to lament that the Government, although it 
had abandoned its unlimited war aims, had taken no direct measures 
for peace in response to the longings of the people. The privations, 
which became more and more distressing, while the hope of relief 
was still remote, were harder to support with the same fervor of 
patriotism. The school regime had to yield to the necessity of pro- 
tecting the children, so far as possible, against actual suffering from 
want of the necessaries of life. In 1918 about 70,000 children from 
Austria were sent into Hungary, which was better supplied with food. 
To afford the children time to benefit by their stay, the vacation 
was extended till September 18. Later on children from both 
Austria and Hungary were sent to Switzerland, where foodstuffs 
could be more readily obtained. 

An order issued by the Ministry of Education in 1918 permitted 
teachers partially disabled in service to resume their duties in the 
schools. Teachers of the State schools who through no fault of their 
own were unable to resume their work had 10 years added to their 
service record for purposes of computing the pensions. 

The return of teachers to their former duties caused many women 
teachers who had been filling vacancies to lose their employment. 
The protests that arose brought on a general discussion of women's 
privileges in the profession. The women teachers not only objected 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 21 

to the abrupt termination of their services, but they pointed out that 
they were excluded from the schools for boys and from the coeduca- 
tional schools and that now efforts were made to exclude them also 
from the girls' schools. In the course of the discussion, which drifted 
away from the original issue, it was shown that all teachers, men 
and women alike, were at liberty to apply for positions at any 
school and to show that they were eligible. A woman who shows that 
she has the courage and the energy to teach boys should have the 
opportunity; if she proves efficient she should be retained; if not, 
she should be transferred to another position. 

The abnormal prices made it necessary for the teachers to cam- 
paign for an increase in salaries in some proportion to the increased 
prices. To that end teachers' associations, local and national, drew 
up resolutions laying before the authorities their needs and urging 
an increase. In some cases the censorship weighed heavily on them, 
so that their reports and resolutions were often repressed. It ap- 
pears, however, that the War Department favored the teachers by 
a special indorsement of their petition to the Minister of Education 
(Yahrbuch, 1918). The recognition of the teachers' services in the 
struggles of the State is apparent throughout. In the autumn of 
1917 the Government made an appropriation of 70,000,000 marks 
available for the living expenses of the 100,000 teachers of the coun- 
try. The conditions for disbursing the appropriation extended it to 
all classes of teachers, whether they are regularly employed, enrolled 
for military service, or substituting for some one on duty at the 
front. This action caused great relief and encouragement; coming 
as it did in December it did something toward dispelling the gloom 
and investing the Christmas season with its old-time cheer. 

THE RESPONSIBILTY AND THE SERVICE OF THE SCHOOLS. 

In the early stages of the war the exultation over reported suc- 
cesses of the German- Austrian arms swayed the sentiments and feel- 
ings of all classes, teachers included. They were led to look upon 
their country's military success as in a large measure the fruition of 
their own work. Not all prominent men stated the case with the 
moderation of Gen. Pluskow. 

My heart goes out to the teachers of the folk school. In peace they taught 
their pupils the love of their native land and in war they fought as brave men. 
whereby they have elevated the position of their profession. 

The Austrian school journals print the words of Dr. Hieber and 
Dr. Rudolph Eucken. The former maintains that : 

Our progress in war is due to German technic and industry, German organiza- 
tion and discipline, in fact to the work done by the German schools. To main- 
tain the schools at this point of superiority and efficiency is the best security 
for the future. 



22 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

Dr. Eucken, whose words are also published with apparent 
indorsement by the journals of Austria, states the case still more 
pointedly : 

First of all, let us constantly bear in mind that the victories of our arms 
are the victories of our schools. For the men whose heroism we admire to-day 
have been trained in our schools and through the faithful work of these have 
become fitted for what they to-day achieve. This should be a hint to us that 
the German school by no means needs an upheaval from without, that it has 
no need of an abrupt break with the past. 

In these connections, though the words of praise were usually ac- 
companied by cautions against the danger of complacency in present 
achievements, the teachers were led to look upon present and pros- 
pective military success as their work. The words of Bismarck and 
others gave ample warrant for identifying the labors of the schools 
with the success of the Army. It will be interesting in the further 
development of the international situation to see whether the teachers 
of Germany and Austria will carry the assumption to its conclusion 
and accept the failure of the imperial armies as the failure of the 
schools of these countries, and, if so, what defects in their work the 
teachers will discover in their analysis of the case. 

In Austria the teachers of German regard the moment as oppor- 
tune to advance the prestige of the German language. The war has 
shown with startling clearness " the damage that a foreign word 
does" and the worth of the native word. The moment has come 
which will determine the prestige and acceptance of the German 
language, not only in Austria and Germany but throughout the 
world. "Our time," says the Rundschau (May, 1917), "must make 
reparation for sins committed during the past centuries against the 
beauty, purity, and correctness of our mother tongue." " The aim 
of the enemy, which is to crush Germany and thereby our language, 
must ingloriously fail." " The will to victory over every foreign in- 
trusion (Auslanderei) in our language has, like an elemental force, 
burst into a veritable folk war against all foreign word-mongering." 
Among the arguments against foreign words are that they make im- 
portant sources of information inaccessible to a great part of the 
German people who intend to pursue scientific or individual studies; 
moreover, that they commit grievous sins against the highest law 
and purpose of the language, namely, its independence; hence, the 
foreign word should be kept out of the press, commerce, and society. 
All official authorities, such as those of the army and the judiciary 
in State and Province, are in earnest in their efforts to expel foreign 
words from administrative departments. Again, the verbal re- 
sources and the word-creating power of the German tongue arc 
pointed out. Counting radicals and derivatives, the Rundscliau 
claims 500,000 words for the German language as over against 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 23 

200.000 for the English and 109,000 for the French. 1 The war has 
given rise to so many new formations for the use of the army, for 
food and clothing, for commercial and social purposes, that Grimm's 
word book will soon have to be supplemented by an additional 

volume. 

If the language question involved only a vigorous opposition to 
the intrusion of words from Latin, French, or English sources, it 
would be comparatively simple. The chief contention arises, how- 
ever, from the efforts of the crownlands to make their own lan- 
guages supreme. In these struggles the Hungarians are gaining an 
ascendency over the Germans. The appeal in behalf of the German 
language, though proceeding from patriotic motives, is made em- 
phatic also by the fact of Magyar preeminence. The words of 
Count Tizsa in the Hungarian Parliament illustrate the position 
the German language in some parts of the Empire has been com- 
pelled to take. The count complained that the Germans in Hungary 
were not permitted to educate their children in the German lan- 
guage, and it appears that his words are substantiated by the sta- 
tistical reports from Hungary, giving the population of each district 
and the number of schools each nation has : 2 



TENESVAR. 

Folk schools. 



180, 000 Roumanians 128 

70,000 Serbians , 44 

3,000 Slovaks 1 

165,000 Germans 18 



BAIS-BODROG. 

145,000 Serbians 66 

30,000 Slovaks 11 

190,000 Germans 18 

TORONTAL. 

200,000 Serbians 74 

80,000 Roumanians 40 

16,000 Slovaks 4 

166,000 Germans 13 

Aside from the question touching the status of rival languages, 
the character of courses and textbooks was examined in the light of 
the aims of the struggle. The readers used in the Czekish folk- 
schools were called in and replaced by others more decidedly Aus- 
trian in patriotism. New matter comprising the most recent mili- 
tary events was incorporated and presented in a way to appeal to 
the young. 3 

The Ministry of Education has ordered that instruction in the 
care of infants shall be given in the middle and the upper classes of 

1 These figures, which obviously would not he accepted by American, French, or British 
scholars, are here given as they appear in the Rundschau. 
2 Padagogisehe Rundschau, June. 1018. 
8 Rundschau, March, 1017. 



24 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

the folkschool. The instruction is to deal with diseases peculiar to 
the early days of an infant, also facts about cleanliness and cloth- 
ing. In the readers several selections are to be devoted to sugges- 
tions on the health and general welfare of young children. These 
subjects are reviewed in the advanced folkschool in more comprehen- 
sive treatment. Still further attention is given to this branch of 
study in the young folks' associations, for the purpose of supplement- 
ing and completing the subject. The instruction will asume the form 
of talks to young people, to girls, and mothers. The teachers of 
Hungary are aware of the new and weighty duties thereby placed 
upon them. The Ministry of Education has offered three prizes of 
4,000, 3,000, and 2,000 crowns, respectively, for the preparation of 
the best textbook on the subject. 

The war, according to published reports, has relieved the State 
of sectarianism in the instruction. The educational journals an- 
nounced with gratification that when the country called there were 
no dogmatic conflicts in religion. The Lutherans, the Catholics, the 
Jews, and the Mohammedans sang the same hymns in the trenches. 
Members of the same denomination may have had grievances against 
one another, but all defended the dearest blessings of their State in 
loyal fellowship. Regarding instruction in religion in the schools, 
the view early gained acceptance that the truth or correctness of 
this or that creed as over against some other should not be touched ; 
that instruction in religion has an educational value as a key to un- 
derstanding the past; and that the universal element in religion — 
its power to steady, comfort, and sustain — should enter into the 
instruction and into life without embodiment in denominational 
formulas. 

The war has given a new direction to the sweep of educational 
currents. Instead of studying the remote past as a key to under- 
standing the world of to-day, attention is directed to the present, 
the development of one's own nation, the spiritual achievements of 
one's own State. In these sources the schools should be able to find 
instruction material of more direct application to the living present. 

How to realize aims of this kind has received the earnest attention 
of the teachers of Austria. The association, " Freie Schule," regards 
the present as the time for the agitation for a modern school. The 
reorganization of the schools was continually discussed so far as the 
censorship did not interfere. It opposed all attempts to compel 
children of nonsectarian parents to attend instruction in religion; 
it favored plans to make the attendance at the middle schools easier 
for children of poor parents. The association, Lehrerakademie in 
Graz, conducted lectures and discussions to develop principles along 
which modern educational laws should be enacted. Laymen have 
taken part in these activities. The deliberations have been charac- 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTEIA-HUNGARY. 25 

terized by the absence of scholastic remoteness. That forward- 
looking efforts have been dominant is indicated by such topics as 
" The gates to the future," " What large problems confront the 
schools and education?" With the view of attaining results to their 
resolutions, the teachers have memorialized the Ministry of Educa- 
tion. 1 

Gradually a borderland between the schools and the industries 
has been discovered, a domain that promises to be the scene of the 
country's most hopeful endeavors. But as emphasized by Prof. 
Victor Faclrus in a lecture, December 1, 1917, without folk school 
teachers of large outlook and endowments nothing can be accom- 
plished. To do their work these men must step forth from their 
seclusion and take an active part in scientific, industrial, juridical, 
technical, political, and art problems of everyday life. The tenor 
of the lecture, which appears to express the view gaining acceptance, 
indicates that the teacher should bring together the people and the 
sciences, the teachers and the arts ; to that end the teachers must, on 
the one hand, be in touch with creative men and women of their 
times and, on the other, with the masses that apperceive and follow. 
Practically, teachers at all stages should be able to recast and to 
refashion instruction values so that these may be apprehended by the 
naive perceptive powers of the j^oung. They should clarify the 
laws of achievement; financial resources, for instance, employed in 
united and cooperative combinations can achieve vastly bigger things 
than can the same resources as scattered units. Teachers should be 
prepared to point out what a given community needs, what it further 
would like to have, and also what it may have above its needs. 

The teacher must, over and above the educational requirements, be 
informed on the resources and the economic arrangements of the 
country. These demands have already taken form in the growing 
vogue of home locality study (Heimatkunde). Again, while the 
teacher is an intermediary between the world and the children, he 
is at the same time an intermediary between the people and their 
aims, between the present and the future. He must share with the 
parents the responsibility for the future of their children; he must 
help to formulate the problems of the community and the nation 
and assist in solving them instead of leaving their solution to self- 
appointed party disputants. ' 

CONSOLIDATION OF TEACHERS' UNIONS. 

The success of the armies of central Europe in the early years of 
the war gave vogue to the dream of Middle Europe (Mittcleuropa). 
The " Schulgeschichte " covering the time from July 15, 1915. to July 
15, 1916 (Jahrbuch, 1916), shows that the teachers anticipated the 

1 Tadagogisches Jahrbuch, 1916. 



26 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

educational problems that would arise from this union of empires. 
The reports from many teachers' associations in Austria and Ger- 
many indicate that the teachers welcomed the idea, and that they, 
within the scope of their work, tried to hasten its consummation. 
Their efforts became directed toward uniting the teachers of the 
countries to comprise the new federation. On the 4th and 5th days 
of March, 1916, negotiations were opened between the German 
Teachers' Association and the German-Austrian Union, looking 
toward a unification of the teachers' associations of the future Mittcl- 
europa. Propositions were drafted and a decision taken to complete 
the federation in the early future. It was further unanimously de- 
cided to have committees appointed from all teachers' associations of 
the middle-European peoples for the purpose of furthering public 
education and more firmly to cement the fellow-feeling among the 
teachers of these countries. The executive committee of the German 
Teachers' Association, which in December, 1915, had started the 
movement, was charged with the task of carrying the resolution into 
effect. 1 The initiative taken by the German association was favor- 
ably viewed by their colleagues in Austria,who regarded the movement 
as opportune for affiliations of the kind contemplated. The idea of 
solidarity and union became general. The problem of Mitteleuropa 
and reorganization after the war was eagerly discussed in the asso- 
ciations of Austria. The provincial associations, however, found 
difficulty in reaching a working basis of unanimity. Efforts were 
made to unite the associations of all the crownlancls into one union 
without regard to party lines or denominational adherence. (Eund- 
schau, August, 1918.) The folk school teachers of Germany resolved 
on cooperating with those of Austria-Hungary ; there was even some 
talk of organic union with those of Bulgaria and Turkey. The 
teachers pointed out that it was desirable to learn more about fellow 
teachers in the allied countries and thereby reach a better under- 
standing of the professional interests they had in common. 

The teachers of Germany sent 40,000 marks to the teachers of 
Austria to help relieve the distress created among their families by 
the invasion of the Russians. This sum was used to assist fugitives 
and other destitute persons for whom no other funds were available. 
This act of good will was to be an enduring monument to the mutu- 
ality of good feeling between the teach ers of the two countries. The 
officers of the teachers' associations were charged with the disposi- 
tion of the sum. " In the war," says a journal for April, 1916, " we 
have lost much of our unfeeling selectiveness ; the struggle between 
classes has been replaced by common interests; former enemies have 

1 l'adagogische Itundschau, May, 1016. 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 27 

become confederated heroes; nations are extending their hands in 

friendship to one another." 

As the movement toward consolidating the teachers' unions of 

these nations was inseparably connected with the war, it rose and 

came to naught with the successes and reverses of the Teutonic 

armies. 

THE NEW ORDER. 

The new order starts with the dismemberment of the Austro- 
Hungarian Empire, from which eventually new Commonwealths will 
arise. Confronted by the impending disruption, each nation is mak- 
ing an effort to maintain its identity and to consolidate with itself 
assimilable portions of other nations. To that end the Czechs, Jugo- 
slavs, and Polish leaders have reaffirmed their nationalistic pro- 
grams in uncompromising terms and have denied the Austro- 
Hungarian Government the right to speak in the name of any save 
the Germans and Magyars. 1 

During this period of uncertainty, of dissolution and of reorgan- 
ization, the teachers have been, so far as it is possible to observe their 
status, swayed by conflicting sentiments. At this moment of disil- 
lusion, so we are told in a journal of October, 1918, the Austrian 
teachers are awaiting the coming reorganization with equanimity. 
They are aware that the growth of national feeling and national con- 
sciousness is so vigorous among the separate Provinces that it is hope- 
less to try to consolidate them into one Imperial Commonwealth. 
The teachers find comfort and compensation in the prospect of relief 
from racial dissensions in new States where each State gets its own. 
The internal struggles have been weighing heavily upon the schools, 
making the enactments of suitable and progressive laws impossible, 
and paralyzing the power to advance. Political considerations have 
swayed and wrenched the school regulations from their just Province. 
" With every change of ministry — and such change was frequent in 
Austria — came a new system. The German, Polish, Czechish, etc., 
ministers of education did not pipe the same tunes." * * * Hence 
a definite national trend could not be maintained. 

The teachers and others appear to look forward to the new era as 
a time when further social progress shall be made through improved 
opportunities for all. The line of demarcation between wealth and 
intellectual work on the one hand and manual work on the other had 
of recent years come to be more sharply drawn than a decade ago. 
The same authority (Rundshau, Jan., 1918), says that the wealthy 
and the educated were moving farther away from those who work 
with the hands. They no longer touched elbows in social affairs; 
they had no celebrations in common: they did not intermarry. 

1 New Europe, October, 1918. 



28 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

The distance between a factory owner and his workmen was greater 
than that between the nobility and the plebeians during the seven- 
teenth century or between master and servant during the Mid- 
dle Ages. Should the war, which has exposed so many defects, 
also find a means to bring social classes into closer sympathy with 
one another? 

The teachers also hope the upheaval may bring relief from inner 
dissensions, from bad school laws and obstructive social traditions. 
They view prospective changes without regret, apparently looking 
forward to better conditions under the republican forms of govern- 
ment that may be established. " How republics may prosper is 
shown by the examples of Switzerland and the United States of 
America, which we have before our eyes," and where "the will of 
the people and the sentiments of the people prevail." 1 

PROBLEMS AND IDEALS NOW UNDER DISCUSSION. 

Rapidly moving political changes have imparted a new momentum 
to school reforms, which are ordinarily slow in taking shape. The 
rising administrations are aware that their principles can gain per- 
manence onlv through the schools. In the new democracies it is 
more obvious than in the older monarchies that policies must reach 
the people and become accepted by them through the schools. 

A few of the current problems and movements which are either in 
sight or already under way as peace is restored are here given. Their 
outcome will depend on the complexion of the political party that 
comes into power. 

First, the country and its leaders hope to find in the closer coopera- 
tion between the schools and the industries the way to recovery from 
the appalling devastation caused by the war. The safety of the 
State and the ascendancy of the schools depend, in the first place, on 
technical efficiency in production and on equitable distribution. 
With this in view, laws expanding the continuation work of the 
schools and the industrial training are urged by the school men. 

The feeling has long be^n uppermost that much excellent talent 
goes to waste for want of opportunity and encouragement. Hence 
the demand has arisen that its discovery and development should 
not be left to chance, but that the schools in their work shall effect 
an arrangement adapted to bring special gifts into sight during the 
period of the folk school, and that funds be provided to afford such 
gifts the opportunity for full development. 

Then, too, it is felt that the teacher's duties to the pupils do not end 
with the completion of the courses. The teacher's counsel and guid- 
ance should be extended to them while they are being established in 
the trades or in business. 



1 lessen, A. Chr., in the November-December issue of Piidagogische Rundschau, 1918. 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 29 

The teachers' field of labor is being extended into new provinces 
that the war has discovered. They will have a larger share than 
formerly in the responsibility for the health of their pupils. In- 
fancy and childhood are the periods when physical defects threaten- 
ing to become permanent afflictions should be discovered and dealt 
with by the specialist. The teachers will be charged with the duty 
of seeing that this is clone. 

That the family is the center from which all educational work 
must proceed is gaining recognition. This conception is leading to 
endeavors to protect the children and their mothers, to look after 
the homes, to see that necessaries and reasonable comforts are pro- 
vided. It is also seen that children need protection against the bad 
influences of the crow T ded cities and sometimes even against the ar- 
rangements made by parents who are not morally fitted to take care 
of them. 

The moral welfare of pupils is a cause of much concern to the 
schools and the authorities, hence the demand is set up that the pro- 
tection and care they get shall be better regulated and placed on a 
more comprehensive basis than hitherto and that funds be procured 
for the erection of schools, homes, gardens, playgrounds, training 
schools for defectives, and places of refuge for neglected or way- 
ward children. These educational and welfare institutions are to 
be administered by teachers and physicians rather than by the 
judicial authorities. Among these measures there is a proposition 
to assign the surveillance of each street and the children and youth 
there to one or two reliable persons. Sensational or inciting papers, 
illustrations, and pictures are to be kept from the hands of children. 
Posters of this character are to be kept out of show windows ; chil- 
dren's attendance at motion-picture entertainments is to be strictly 
regulated. * 

The increased scope of woman's work will demand adaptation of 
the schools to better and more consistent plans for the training of 
women in household work and domestic duties, the care of infants 
and the sick. The schools will also be expected to provide better 
physical training for girls. Some training or guidance of value to 
girls as social members of the community will be imparted. 
5 Physical training must be continued through the entire period of 
schooling, beginning in the earliest days of infancy and adapting 
itself to the changing needs of childhood and youth. Upon leaving 
school the young men should continue the work in the preparatory 
military schools and the young women unite into voluntary associ- 
ation for continued physical exercise, a requisite also to be set up 
for the young men who have completed their military service. These 
endeavors have, first of all, the obvious value of improving health 
and strength, but they have also the very important value of bringing 



30 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1016-1918. 



together persons from all classes for purposes that tend to unite them 
in closer fellow feeling. 

In regard to school control, a general sentiment prevails that State 
control of the folk schools would obviate many of the difficulties 
under which the} r now labor, particularly the ever-present tendency 
to disruption due to partisan conflict. The salaries of teachers would, 
under State administration, be more equitable. This topic, as well 
as that of the Einheitsschule, involves the organization of the entire 
system. 

The educational associations of Austria urge that the institutions 
for the training of teachers should also be taken over by the State, 
and that, as a consequence, private teachers' colleges and seminaries 
should be gradually discontinued. They set up further the aim of 
extending the course for teachers from four to five j^ears. To have 
attained the age of 15 should be the only entrance condition. But as 
teachers' training schools continue from the folk school (Biirger- 
schule), and as these dismiss their pupils at the age of 14, it might 
be advisable, in order to avoid the omission of a } T ear, to extend the 
teachers' course to six years and consequently admit pupils at the 
age of 14. Entrance examinations should be omitted ; the certificate 
from the Biirgerschule should suffice, perhaps on the condition that 
a pupil may be found insufficiently prepared before the end of the 
first semester. The curriculum for teachers should comprise, besides 
the native tongue, one modern language, with the privilege of select- 
ing also a second modern language and Latin. The Society for the 
Education of Teachers regards the inclusion of Latin as essential in 
the course for teachers, maintaining that : 

(a) " Of all languages, Latin is best adapted to support the in- 
struction in the mother tongue." 

(7>y They cite the words of Dr. Rudolph Heinrich, a prominent 
educator of Vienna : 

We have gone to school to the ancients for a thousand years, a fact which 
has charged our modern spiritual life with the conceptions of the ancients, 
which we can not fully comprehend without tracing them back to their sources. 
Most sciences owe their terminology to the ancient languages. The fundamental 
educational sciences, as psychology, logic, ethics, in their basic ideas, point back 
to the intellectual work of the ancients. It is further pointed out that the 
inherent exactness and consistency of the Latin tongue have a powerful forma- 
tive value in education. In Roman history we can study the rise, the spirit, 
and the decline of a world power and observe what makes a people great and 
what is the cause of its downfall. 

As the present sketch is being completed reports from the schools 
of Austria-Hungary come to hand, indicating the sweeping changes 
that may follow in the wake of the present upheaval. 

The present Government of Hungary, according to La Vie Univer- 
sitaire, contemplates bridging the chasm between social orders by re- 



THE SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 31 

quiring students of the learned professions to devote certain hours a 
week to a trade or to strictly manual work. 

The Berne correspondent of the London Times Educational Sup- 
plement for April 17, 1919, telegraphs : 

The Budapest schools reopened last Friday. The Soviet government is pre- 
paring a complete revision of the educational system in accordance with the 
new spirit and aspirations of the world proletariat. The teachers are to begin 
by an explanation of the ordinance of the new government. The schemes of 
instruction in history and citizenship are to be revolutionized by the substitu- 
tion of Marxian teaching for capitalist doctrines of socal economics. Ethics will 
be substituted for religious instruction. The teaching of jurisprudence for 
advanced students in the commercial colleges will be abolished, as the system 
of laws under the communist government is entirely different from that of the 
capitalist regime. 

But such enactments are likely to move back from the extremes till 
the}^ reach a balance in true accord with the new order. The recent 
school laws of Germany, which eliminated religious instruction from 
the curricula, are already in danger of repeal under the protests 
coming from school associations in all parts of the country. In 
Austria-Hungary, as in Germany, the schools need an influence to 
steady them in their labors, some element of permanence that factions 
may feel they have in common. While the stress has been on the 
necessaries of life — hence productiveness, industry, commerce — the 
coming days will find equal stress laid on ideals, for without them 
chaos will prevail. The highest educational aims of the future will 
be sought in human mutuality, truth, self-determination, in which 
educational, social, and philosophic endeavors will make common 
cause. Duties to one's fellow mortals must be taught; and from what- 
ever source the teaching comes, it can not be made conclusive or 
effective merely as a. legal formula. The State will need — and the 
schools must help to furnish them — ideas of permanence to polarize 
the present flux of feeling and sentiment. The State needs and the 
schools must help to train characters of integrity, of love for justice, 
of irrepressible energy, of comprehensive organizing power, in order 
to give stability to the new commonwealths. 



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